Brind'Amour, Maurice familiar foes entering Hurricanes-Panthers series

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Rod Brind'Amour was one season removed from his 21-year NHL playing career in 2011 when he decided to try his hand at coaching. At 41 years old, the former Carolina Hurricanes captain stepped behind their bench to assist Paul Maurice, his coach for seven of his 10 seasons here.

"I just remember watching him do it, going, 'I'll never be a coach' because he's up here in the way he thinks," Brind'Amour said, raising his hand above his head. "I was like, 'Oh man, if it has to be like that, I'm probably not going to be able to do it.' But I found a kind of different way to do it."

When the Hurricanes face Maurice's Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final, the two coaches will bring more than just personal familiarity to the series. Each has earned his stature as one of the NHL's top coaches.

Brind'Amour, 52, has led Carolina to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of his five seasons and has advanced past the first round four times. Maurice, 56, in his first season with the Panthers, has coached 1,766 regular-season games, fourth-most in NHL history. In 2002 he guided the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost in five games to the Detroit Red Wings. Then, in the first season of a second stint with Carolina, he took the Hurricanes to the 2009 Eastern Conference Final, where they were swept in four games by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now in his 25th season as an NHL coach, Maurice will be coaching in his fourth conference final; his Winnipeg Jets lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games in the 2018 Western Conference Final.

"There's a reason he's lasted as long as he has," Brind'Amour said. "Clearly, he's one of the best."

Hurricanes forward Paul Stastny has a good feel for both coaches. He played for Maurice with the Jets the previous two seasons and in 2017-18.

"I think Rod does a good job of motivating in the sense of trying to tie everything together in the team aspect or the family aspect, or even trying to enjoy the game," Stastny said. "He probably learned that from Paul because he's really good at that. Paul has a good perspective on everything. He's been around the game for so long."

The Carolina coach readily admits to learning those skills from Maurice.

"He always knew the right things to say," Brind'Amour said. "What I marveled about was, coaching is saying the same things every night, but you've got to find a different way to say it. He was really good at that."

Maurice anticipated Brind'Amour's coaching success even before the apprenticeship in Carolina. The former captain's work ethic was especially apparent to Maurice in the hours after games.

"(As coaches), we get to the rink early and we leave late," Maurice said. "And after every game, it's midnight, you're walking out, he's still in the gym. That's who he was as a player. He put an incredible amount of time in and then when he decided to be a coach, then he just put that time into coaching. So he was going to be very, very successful."

Brind'Amour's playing days revealed other insights to Maurice away from the rink.

"This was a quiet player. Very intense, not much of a talker," the Florida coach said. "We were in Calgary, and he got an award for some of the charity work that he did. He got up and accepted it and gave a speech, and it was spectacular. I had no idea that he was that gifted a speaker. So public speaking is part of the job. You knew he had the hockey from his entire career, and he had the work ethic, absolutely. But being able to communicate an idea is important and he's really good at it."

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Though the two coaches have gained plenty of insight into one another, it will soon be time to set aside their admiration for one another.

"I don't want to be sitting here throwing a love fest. I've got to beat him," Brind'Amour said with a smile. "Everyone expected [the Panthers] to be where they're at. It just took them a little while to figure it out."

The Panthers, who won the Presidents' Trophy for having the best record in the NHL last season, were the second wild card into the playoffs from the East this season. The Hurricanes finished first in the Metropolitan Division.

The teams met three times in the regular season; Florida defeated Carolina 3-0 on Nov. 9 but lost 4-0 on Dec. 30 and 6-4 on April 13.

Maurice is trying to take Florida to its first Cup Final since 1996, when it was swept by the Colorado Avalanche.

"They've got a real good team," Maurice said. "So it'll be exciting and fast hockey. Yeah, it's a special place. It feels like a lifetime ago, so there's not the same connection over time. [PNC Arena] is a great building. It's a loud building."

However the series plays out, the shared history of the coaches is like to have some bearing on the outcome.

"When I was in Winnipeg, Paul always loved the way Carolina played -- or hated the way Carolina played because they're tough to play against," Stastny said. "Paul would always try to implement that system when I was in Winnipeg. It's hard sometimes because you've got to have the right pieces and everybody's got to buy in.

"But I think both coaches admire each other and admire the way each other plays. It's two guys who are held in high respect in the hockey world."

NHL.com independent correspondent Alain Poupart contributed to this report